In recent years the development of digital video cameras and digital photo cameras has lead to a widespread adoption of these devices by the end users. Further, because of the widespread adoption of these devices and the availability of personal computers more and more inexperienced users are seeking to create multimedia works by combining digital videos and still images with background music.
There are a large number of software products that allow a user to compose, edit, and play his or her own multimedia work. These software solutions usually offer the user a broad range of media editing options such as, for example, cutting/pasting, arranging, organizing, applying effects, etc. Typically, such programs allow a user to store an intermediate step or the completed project on computer-readable media. Obviously a properly composed and edited video or photo story can be much more entertaining and enjoyable for the viewer than the raw footage collected by the photographer, which footage may contain large sections of unusable or irrelevant material.
Generally speaking, most multimedia editing software provides the user with the ability to edit the video footage and to insert specific audio data (e.g., music or over dubbed narration) that is to be used as an accompaniment. In such a circumstance, no effort is made to coordinate the video and audio: the audio is simply inserted and played (by default) sequentially for its entire length.
Because of the unrelated nature of the audio and video tracks, somewhat disappointing results can be produced. This can be quite noticeable to the audience and, as a consequence, the user experience of watching the created composition is not the best possible one and this situation can only be somewhat disappointing for the user who created the composition.
Thus, what is needed is a method for automatically aligning video footage with subsequently added audio data so that the two are coordinated at least to the point where the audio/video combination is not noticeable by the audience. Additionally it is preferred that the alignment process features an automatic selection of specific sections of both the audio data and the video data automatically without user intervention.
Heretofore, as is well known in the media editing industry, there has been a need for an invention to address and solve the above-described problems. Accordingly it should now be recognized, as was recognized by the present inventors, that there exists, and has existed for some time, a very real need for a system and method that would address and solve the above-described problems.
Before proceeding to a description of the present invention, however, it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of this invention within the ambit of the appended claims.